The National Weather Service on Friday issued a rare warning for part of Colorado’s Front Range, where strong winds, a hurricane and mild dry conditions raised the risk of wildfires in several counties, while flood warnings were issued in Oregon as rivers there swelled due to heavy rains.
This marks another day of severe weather in parts of the United States, with forecasters issuing warnings for everything from increasing winter weather in North Dakota to red flag warnings in Nebraska and Texas and flood warnings from Washington south to California.
The most notable of these was the “particularly dangerous situation” hot weather warning issued in Colorado on Friday morning, the first of its kind in this western state. PDS warnings are reserved for the most severe scenarios, in this case fueled by forecasters’ concerns that an extreme combination of strong winds, extremely low humidity and very dry fuels could create a life-threatening fire risk.
“We don’t really want people to panic because that doesn’t help anything, but we want people to be prepared,” said Jennifer Stark, a meteorologist in charge of the Weather Service’s office in Boulder. She noted that this is the peak of the wind season in the region.
By late afternoon, a high wind warning was still in place for the surrounding hillsides and plains. Meteorologists said that the winds will gradually weaken after sunset.
A gust of 105 mph (169 km/h) was recorded Friday in National Center for Atmospheric Research In Boulder. The winds toppled trees and downed power lines across the region, and authorities shared photos of the dust storms and urged people to stay off the roads.
Tens of thousands of customers were without power Excel Energy Another public safety power outage was implemented to prevent further fire risks. The company warned that unplanned outages resulting from wind damage are expected to significantly exceed the number of customers affected by preventive shutdowns.
In Holland, a town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Matt Arlen helped stock shelves at a grocery store that was without power on Friday, a day after a wave of “panic shopping” in response to the severe weather.
“We’re used to kind of high winds,” he said. “It’s more due to the power outages affecting people here who don’t have stoves for heat” at home.
However, the combination of wind and dry weather Arlene had in mind was in an area that could be prone to wildfires. the 2021 Marshall Fire More than 1,000 homes were destroyed in the nearby Boulder suburbs.
“The only thing is, We didn’t have much snow“, said B’s pricing coordinator&Jabal F Market.
In Wellington, a town of 11,000 located in a windy region of the Colorado plains near the Wyoming state line, public library technologist Eileen Ringland said wind was on everyone’s minds. At home, she used a generator during the power outages on Wednesday and Thursday to keep the refrigerator running and the freezer from defrosting.
“I can tell you right now that our flag stands straight,” she said Friday. “We are prepared if we have to close the library. Our city is monitoring the matter, and they are in contact with the electric company.”
In Ringland’s neighborhood, winds bent trees and tossed them around shingles and weeds.
Meanwhile, in northwest Oregon, national meteorologists said they expect widespread river flooding to continue after heavy rain.
In the rural city of Sheridan, about 50 miles southwest of Portland, a 52-year-old man died after driving through road closure signs on a road covered in high water, the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office said. The 911 caller saw a man get out of the car and into the water after the car was swept away by the current. His body was found by a drone and recovered by a rescue team and a resident, the sheriff’s office said.
Clackamas County, which spans some Portland suburbs and part of Mount Hood and the Cascade Mountains, sent eviction notices to 300 residences, county spokesman Scott Anderson said. He added that some of the most significant flooding occurred in the Sandy, Clackamas and Molalla rivers, where authorities conducted rescue operations throughout the night.
Among those rescued was a family of six who got stuck in their car after trying to drive on a flooded road, said Linsey Amundson, spokeswoman for the Clackamas Fire District. She added that elsewhere, authorities used an inflatable raft to rescue a man from his home.
In Northern California, forecasters were predicting a Pineapple ExpressIt is a stronger atmospheric river that originates in the tropics near Hawaii, arriving around Christmas time. The forecast brought hope to ski resort operators that long-awaited rainfall would extend to the Sierra Nevada, where very little snow has fallen this season.
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Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.